Tennessee football overwhelmed by Billy Napier's Florida in The Swamp

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Tennessee football still hasn’t awakened from its long nightmare of The Swamp.

The No. 9 Vols lost 29-16 to Florida on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, where they haven’t won since 2003.

Everything that had haunted UT (2-1, 0-1 SEC) in the past 20 years was revived for this one. The raucous crowd, the gator chomp and an inspired performance by Florida (2-1, 1-0) buried UT.

The Vols entered the week as a top-10 team, but the Gators had owned their rival in this stadium.

In fact, this was their first head-to-head game since 1971 that UT was ranked and Florida was not. But that advantage in the polls didn’t show on the field.

UT quarterback Joe Milton was 20-of-34 passing for 287 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. He hit Bru McCoy for a 55-yard TD pass in the fourth quarter to cut Florida's lead to 29-16, but the rally fell short.

Florida quarterback Graham Mertz was steady, especially as the Gators scored 26 straight points in the first half. Mertz finished 19-of-24 passing for 166 yards and one TD. And Trevor Etienne rushed for a career-high 172 yards for Florida.

Here are four observations from UT’s SEC opener.

The Swamp swallowed Vols offense

UT raced to its first TD with ease, going 71 yards in six plays. Ramel Keyton caught an 11-yard TD pass from Milton. But that momentum was short-lived.

After that, the Florida crowd shook Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and rattled the UT offense during a critical stretch that turned the game.

The Vols committed three false start penalties by three different offensive linemen in the first half, and each killed a drive. And when UT wasn’t jumping before the snap, it was calling a timeout to get its bearings. But that only fueled the Florida crowd of 90,751.

During that deafening first-half stretch, Florida scored four unanswered TDs while UT floundered. It turned UT's 7-6 lead into a 26-7 halftime deficit.

Joe Milton’s first interception really hurt

Milton tossed an interception for the first time in 248 pass attempts, a streak that dated back to his time at Michigan in 2020.

Counting only his three seasons at UT, it was his first pick thrown in 216 pass attempts, the second-longest streak in Vols history behind Hendon Hooker.

No matter how you count it, the interception was very bad for the Vols and painful for Milton. Florida’s 435-pound nose tackle, Desmond Watson, hit Milton as he threw the football, and it fluttered into the hands of cornerback Devin Moore.

After a long return and a UT unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, Florida took over the Vols’ 9-yard line. The Gators scored three plays later to go ahead 19-7. And it never got easier for the Vols.

Missed tackles sprung Florida’s biggest plays

Reviewing the game film won’t be fun for UT’s defense, especially because several players missed tackles on Florida’s biggest plays.

On Trevor Etienne’s 62-yard TD run, safety Wesley Walker whiffed while diving for a head-on tackle. And cornerback Kamal Hadden bumped Etienne rather than wrap him up.

On Montrell Johnson’s 18-yard TD catch on a swing pass, defensive back Tamarion McDonald missed a tackle near the line of scrimmage. And Walker over-ran the play and missed Johnson before he reached the goal line.

Vols really could’ve used Cooper Mays

UT’s offensive line had a bad performance. False start penalties backed up the Vols to start drives. And pressure on Milton finished them off. Plus, short-yardage runs rarely went well.

Who’s to blame for those lapses will show up in film study. But it was clear that UT missed center Cooper Mays more than its two previous games.

Mays, a preseason All-SEC selection, was a game-time decision. But he never played and instead sat out a third straight game since undergoing a medical procedure on an undisclosed injury on Aug. 9.

Mays’ replacements were the same as the first two games. Ollie Lane started at center, and Dayne Davis also played there. But the Vols struggled to communicate amid the noise, and Florida's massive interior defensive line pushed them around on key downs.

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Emailadam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

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